‘…we were bold in our God…’ 1 Thessalonians 2:2 NKJV
If you want to be led by God you must learn to be bold; not rude or insensitive, but bold, because God will sometimes direct you to do things other people don’t understand or agree with. Any time you step outside the boundaries of what others think is acceptable, you risk rejection. So be it! You can’t allow that to keep you from doing what you know God wants you to do. Confronting criticism becomes a little easier when you remember that, in the end, ‘…each of us shall give account of himself to God.’ (Romans 14:12 NKJV) It hurts to be criticised. But if you’re to succeed in life, you must have the attitude Paul had. Ben Campbell Johnson paraphrases Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 4:3–4: ‘I am not the least concerned with the fact that you are deciding what is right and what is wrong with me… Neither you nor anyone else can put me down unless I first put myself down (and I’m not doing that)… Though I don’t know of anything against me, my ignorance doesn’t mean that I am correct in my appraisal, because the final evaluation is in God’s hands.’ Secure people can handle being the only ones doing something. They can also allow others the same choice because they know we have been called to love one another, not analyse and categorise one another! To avoid growing old and feeling like somewhere along the way you got lost and never succeeded at being what God called you to be, you must be bold.
SoulFood: Rev 7:13–17, Ps 23, Luke 15:1–7
The Word for Today is authored by Bob and Debby Gass and published under licence from UCB International Copyright ©